Thoughts on Modern Web Development …

Like many developers, at times I find the need to convert raw HTML to JSX. It was only after I found myself needing to do this a bit more frequently that I considered writing a quick tool to automate the task. However, like most things, I knew there must be something out there which handles this already, and as I suspected, there certainly is: HTMLtoJSX – a component of React-Magic which does precisely this.

So, if ever you need to quickly convert raw HTML to JSX, be sure to check out the online converter and, for more frequent needs, the converter is also available via NPM and can easily be integrated into part of an existing build pipeline.

Indeed, a greeting may be appropriate here as it has been quite some time since I have actively blogged which, for all intents and purposes, has been for good reason.

After a decade of continuous blogging with a minimum of at least one (hopefully) informative article per month, I had made a conscious decision to take a step back, re-evaluate, and, on the peripheral, dedicate my otherwise allocated writing time towards focusing on the many aspects of future Web Development.

With that in mind, my time spent has been put to good use, and so, I’ve decided to begin sharing my experiences here more frequently once again; both trivial and non-trivial alike.

The fact is, I miss writing, and outside of day to day writing of general API docs and the occasional technical spec, I haven’t had a dedicated space to share my more subjective, creative thoughts about modern Web Development. Enough about me, though, I’ll get to the point…

Before I delve into the specific topics I plan to discuss, I think it makes sense to first outline an underlying theme which will permeate throughout my future articles. Specifically, I plan to to focus on topics and technologies which I believe will, to a certain extent, transcend the more immediate trends within the Web Development landscape that tend to come and go with the times. I strongly believe it is essential for our community to continue on a path of sustainable growth, and the path of least resistance will more than likely be in our ability to move from library to library, framework to framework, easily and with minimal transition. This is imperative as the rate at which technologies are changing has grown exponentially in the past few years, perhaps no where more so than in the Web Development space. As such, the ability to identify and focus on core underlying concepts, principles and technologies which will remain relevant for some time to come becomes ever more important.

The simple fact is, we need to pay particular attention to what we dedicate our time to learning, and ensure our learning is focused on key aspects that can carry over as each new technology increases in adoption, and then makes way for the next in line.

With that in mind, I plan to focus this space on my findings and most recent experiences with current Web Development technologies of interest, particularly, but not limited to, the recent work of the TC39 Committee, all things ES2015 / ES2016, React / Redux, Webpack, Web Components, Polymer, Angular 2, and the many other complimentary tools and technologies surrounding modern workflows.

So stay tuned, as always, there’s a lot to talk about! Good things to come …

Having worked with jQuery Mobile since Alpha 1, in the time since, the framework has certainly evolved into a mature, premier platform on which Mobile Web Applications can be built.

On a personal note, as I am currently in the process of working towards the release of a multi form-factor Mobile Web Application built on jQuery Mobile, the 1.0 release couldn’t have come at a better time.

Of the many Network Debuggers available, for years I have, and continue to find, Charles to be a choice Web Debugging Proxy by all standards. This is largely due to its capabilities and many useful features, some of which are a bit less obvious than others.

One such example is the Map Remote feature which allows for the mapping of local URLs to remote URLs. This can be extremely useful as it allows for testing against many different environments without the need to change URLs or Endpoints in code.

Map Remote

As the name implies, Map Remote allows for mapping requests made to a local resource to be forwarded (transparently) to a Remote resource. So, for example, a local service at http://localhost:8080/some-app/some-service could be mapped to a remote service at http://dev.somedomain/some-app/some-service via a simple configuration using Map Remote. Moreover, Map Remote can be configured to map an individual resource (such as the previous example), all resources within a sub directory, all resources in a domain, all resources in a local subdirectory to a completely different remote subdirectory or all resources for a given suffix.

To configure the mapping of a local resource to a remote resource, in Charles, from the Main Menu select:

Tools

Map Remote

Click “Enable Map Remote” from the Map Remote Dialog

Paste the Local resource URL in the top “Map From” section (Charles will parse and auto-fill the protocol, port etc. from the host value provided)

Paste the Remote resource URL in the bottom “Map To” section

Once completed you will see the mapping in the resulting dialog and the mappings will be made when using Charles until they are removed or the “Enable Map Remote” setting is turned off. Additional Mappings can be added following the same steps and existing mappings can be removed or edited by double clicking on them. The only improvement I would like to see added is the ability to “clone” an existing mapping so as to quickly configure a slightly different mapping without the need to start from scratch.

There is also a Map Local Feature in Charles which is essentially the inverse operation of Map Remote and can be quite useful as well.

If you regularly test against different environments and use Charles then I highly suggest trying Map Remote. For more information, check out the Charles Documentation.

I recently read a preview of a column which is to be published in the next addition of ACM CHI magazine, Interactions. This particular article is a rather interesting read in that it touches upon what the authors argue are the many short-comings in current Gestural Interfaces; stating that they pose a huge step backwards in terms of Usability.

This may not have raised many eyebrows if it were not for the expertise of the articles authors, Donald A. Norman and Jakob Nielsen; both of whom know quite a bit about HCI.

Experimentation in new technology and the process of learning what works and what does not can be challenging. This article raises some important, yet mostly overlooked, concerns surrounding new technologies which are built upon Gestural Interfaces; i.e. current touch screen devices such as iOS and Android. Certainly a good read for anyone interested in Touch Screen development. Gestural Interfaces: A Step Backwards In Usability

So first the biggest number – 5.2. That is in billions with a B. There are 1.2 billion personal computers in use worldwide including desktops, laptops and tablet PCs like the iPad. There are 1.1 billion fixed landline phones. There are 1.0 billion automobiles registered and in use. There are 1.6 billion television sets, 1.7 billion credit card users, 2.0 billion internet users, 2.2 billion people with a banking account, and 3.9 billion radio receivers in use worldwide. Mobile utterly dwarfs them all – with 5.2 billion currently active, ie fully paid mobile phone subscriptions. Active mobile phone accounts. 5.2 billion. yes, 4.5 times more mobile phone subscriptions than personal computers or landline phones. 2.5x more mobile accounts than all internet users. 3 times more mobile subscribers than the total number of television sets. Mobile is huge. – Tomi Ahonen

These numbers are simply staggering.

For sometime now Myself and pretty much everyone else for that matter have been speaking quite a bit about the significance of Mobile. And while it may seem quite obvious that Mobile is huge, understanding the sheer magnitude of Mobile is truly put into perspective when some real world comparisons are made.